1896 



GLEANINGS IN BEE CULTURE. 



675 



ilHi!n^[Hjn!!lH|N!nii|||| ||| | |} | ;!|j^^^ 





'^^y^'t'^f^^^! ' f-. ■. \. -^ "' '^f ihiJ^SUry of Crystal flouniatn 



-0-0 ()! great gunss!" 

 shouted Mr. Ghering; 

 " I vas stung! Oh! I 

 vas stung mit the 

 hair on the top of my 

 head!" and he plung- 

 ed into the bushes. 

 "There's more as ten 

 thousand bees in my 

 hair." 

 "Oh. no!" said Fred, coming to him in the 

 bushes; "there are only two or three — see;" 

 and he picked out the offending bees. 



"Vas that so? Anyways, that vas remark- 

 able how those two, three made so much noise, 

 and made my head feel like it vas in one hot 

 ofen." 



After Fred had extracted the stings and con- 

 soled him. Mr. Ghering found that he was not 

 hurt much after all; and, laughing loudly, 

 said. "Shust think how it vas comical. I vas 

 smiling all ofer my face with an open infitation 

 for them to make a charge; but they all went 

 into the back door of my head, through that 

 von little hole in my hat;" and Mr. Ghering 

 went off scratching his head. His parting 

 words to Frtid were to go into some other busi- 

 ness, for those bees had all of the anger of 

 McBurger and the devil of Dawson; "but it 

 vas so comical." 



Upon being left alone again, Fred cut down 

 the two cottonwood-trees. and. after scoring 

 and hewing them, he had two pieces of timber 

 which faced up eight inches. Halving in sev- 

 eral cross-pieces and legs, and covering all with 

 Oregon pine. Fred completed a bench of such 

 generous proportions, and of such a Arm nature, 

 that he patted it with his hands admiringly, 

 and, jumping upon it, let out his exuberant 

 spirits by dancing a little jig. 



Fred had secured some provisions from down 

 the river, or " grub stake," as the miners say; 

 and for the present, or until he had time to put 

 up his cabin, he proposed to bach it under the 

 friendly cottonwoods. After eating his supper, 

 in the performance of which he used his new 

 work-bench for a table, and still having some 

 minutes of daylight, he selected a number of 

 the rickety hives and proceeded to renail them. 

 "No spring in that bench," said he, as he 

 nailed up the flr^t hive. " Nothing like having 

 a firm foundation to a fellow's business." 



The strokes of Fred's hammer were rapid and 

 lusty, and awoke the echoes in a wide circle 



around him. The men from the ranch came 

 over to see the progress of the enterprise. Mr. 

 Ghering had recovered from his stinging expe- 

 rience in the morning, and, under the friendly 

 shades of evening, approached without fear. 



"Well, Fred," said he, as he came up, "I 

 think you vork all day and all night. When 

 you haf been in this country two, three, four 

 years, somedimes less, you will not vork so hard 

 as fury." 



" When I have any thing to do," replied Fred, 

 "I believe in doing it; and especially in this 

 case I can not neglect the work, for, to secure 

 the best results, it must be done right now. In 

 bee-keeping we must have our dish right side 

 up at the proper time, or we lose the harvest." 



"I always supposet in the bee-business that 

 the bees do all the vork— shust as they did in 

 my hair this morning— ha, ha! and the bee- 

 owner he do somedings else until he vas hungry 

 for honey; then he shust opens his hife and 

 helps himself. But I haf learned one thing — he 

 must haf no leedle holes in the top of his 

 hat." 



" Why, boss," said Matt Hogan, "baa-kaap- 

 ing is loike fishing — yees must have the bait 

 on the hook, the hook in the wather, and yer- 

 self a navigating the pole; it's just aisy whin 

 yees know how." 



"Your illustration is very good," said Fred, 

 " but you must be sure of an another important 

 thing— that there are fish in the water." 



"That's so," said Matt, scratching his head. 

 "But thin, Misther Fred, who'd be such a 

 murthering fool as to fish in an ould frog-pond 

 where there's no fish ? " 



" If you aspire to become a bee-keeper. Matt, 

 that is one of the conditions. We get our api- 

 cultnral hook carefully baited, throw it into 

 the stream, and wait and wait; but no fish rise 

 to the bait. In other words, there's no honey 

 in the flowers, and our labor is in vain." 



" Well, thin, I'd move up stream, and try all 

 the coves, or go over to the Feather or the 

 American River. Be gorry, I'd find the fish." 



"That's it, Matt; you would be a migratory 

 bee-keeper." 



The late evening air now became quite cool, 

 as it always does in this climate, and the men 

 dropped off one by one to the ranch and to their 

 bunks. Fred called Ghering's attention to his 

 work-bench, and expatiated upon its strength 

 and other good points; " and," said he, " I shall 

 use it at present for a work-bench, table, and 



